[44]. Column Bluffs is the usual designation of this point on the river, about ten miles above Gualquil Rapid. According to an Indian legend, two wicked women who lived here were accustomed to kill those who passed. The Indians begged the Great Spirit to destroy them, and he, answering their prayer, sent an immense bird which picked out their brains and turned them into stone.—Ed.
[45]. Lewis and Clark called this river Wahnaacha, after the tribe of Pisquow Indians of that name who dwelt along its banks. Wenatchee and Pischous are both used to designate the stream at the present time. It takes its rise in the Wenatchee Mountains and flows south-eastward, emptying into the Columbia one hundred and forty-eight miles from the mouth of the Snake. The Great Northern Railway follows its course.—Ed.
[46]. Oak Point, mentioned so frequently in accounts of Columbian exploration, was near Astoria—Franchère, note 74. The one here referred to must be near the mouth of the Entiatqua (Entiyatecoom) River, known to the Canadian voyageurs as Point de Bois. The Entiatqua, which Ross calls Intyclook, is a small stream about a hundred feet wide, flowing into the Columbia from the west, fifteen miles above the Pischous.—Ed.
[47]. Between Oak Point and White Hill Rapid the west bank is a continuous volcanic bluff about two thousand feet high and striped with different-colored strata—white, gray, black, and dark brown. The rapid was doubtless named from the white hills on the eastern side.—Ed.
[48]. Concerning these animals, see Franchère, note 172.—Ed.
[49]. This is the Chelan River, which empties into the Columbia from the north-west, about one hundred and eighty-five miles above the Snake. It is but two and a half miles long, is the outlet of a considerable lake of the same name, and has a fall of two hundred and fifty feet. Just above its mouth was the principal village of the Chelan tribe, a branch of the Salish. A military post was established on this lake (1880), but not long after was removed to Spokane.—Ed.
[50]. Ross also calls this the Meathow River, and Methow is at present the usual appellation. The rapids just below the mouth have been named Ross Rapids, probably in honor of our author.—Ed.
[51]. The distance is really about one hundred and twenty-five miles. For a brief history of Okanagan post, see Franchère, note 71.—Ed.
[52]. This river was discovered by the explorer Thompson (for whom see Franchère, note 61). It has two large branches, a northern and an eastern, which unite at Lake Kamloops, one hundred and fifty miles directly north of the Okanagan post; the united stream then flows south-west for about ninety miles and unites with the Fraser. Thompson, thinking that he was upon the Columbia, descended its northern branch to the forks.—Ed.
[53]. The Shushwaps (She Whaps) are a branch of the Salishan family and closely allied in language and habits to the tribes about Okanagan post. They were also called Atnahs (strangers), a name given them by the Carrier Indians, farther to the north-west. They formerly occupied the country along the Thompson and its branches, but by 1900 they were reduced to fifty-four persons.—Ed.